The pitching has been awful, and the defense has been downright painful to watch at times this season, but thanks to the amazing offense this Dodger team has been damn exciting to watch through the first 14 games of the season. Tonight was no exception, as the Dodgers battered the Reds, 14-6 at Great American Ballpark.
Hiroki Kuroda was bad tonight, allowing six runs (three earned) in his 5 2/3 innings. But thanks to the offense, it didn't matter. The Dodger offense is covering up a lot of warts on this team right now, and just about everybody got into the act tonight:
- The Dodgers tied a club record by scoring in eight different innings tonight, and now lead the major leagues with 93 runs scored.
- Rafael Furcal had a single, double, and triple, scoring three while driving in four runs, and even stole a base, his seventh on the season. Coming into the series in Cincinnati, Furcal didn't drive in a run in the first 12 games of the season. Now, he has five RBI.
- Matt Kemp hit his seventh home run over the last 10 games, and tied a career high with four runs scored. Kemp, through 14 games, has seven home runs and 20 RBI. By contrast Ron Cey had five homers and 22 RBI after 14 games in April 1977.
- Andre Ethier tallied three hits, including his fourth home run of the season
- Manny Ramirez delivered his 1,800th career RBI tonight with a single in the fifth inning. He is the 19th man to reach that mark in MLB history. Frank Robinson is next on the list, with 1,812 RBI. Manny also extended a streak of consecutive plate appearances reaching base to eight, although the streak ended in the eighth inning.
- James Loney had three hits and two runs batted in, and is hitting .410/.425/.487 over his last nine games.
- Russell Martin added two hits and two runs
- Ronald Belisario made his season debut, and pitched a scoreless seventh inning
Hong-Chih Kuo will likely be activated Thursday or Friday. The corresponding move could depend on tonight's game. Carlos Monasterios, the Rule 5 pick who is the likely favorite to go when Kuo comes back, pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in an effort to stay on the squad. Perhaps more importantly, Jeff Weaver left the game after making two pitches in the eighth with what appeared (from watching on TV) to be a hamstring injury. If Weaver, who has pitched in nine of 14 games this season, needs to be placed on the disabled list -- and this is way too early to know -- that will extend Monasterios' time with the Dodgers.
Right now, the Dodger outfield consists of one guy leading the majors in runs, home runs, and RBI, and two other guys hitting .400. Wow:
| The Starting Dodger Outfield | ||||||
| Player | G | HR | R | RBI | BA/OBP/SLG | OPS |
| Manny Ramirez | 12 | 2 | 7 | 12 | .421/.510/.684 | 1.194 |
| Matt Kemp | 14 | 7 | 19 | 20 | .333/.391/.750 | 1.141 |
| Andre Ethier | 12 | 4 | 8 | 14 | .400/.471/.689 | 1.159 |
| Totals | 14 | 13 | 34 | 46 | .378/.450/.713 | 1.163 |
Mike Leake of the Reds puts his head on the chopping block tomorrow night in the series finale, against Vicente Padilla.
WP - Hiroki Kuroda (2-0): 5 2/3 IP, 7 hits, 6 runs (3 earned), 2 walks, 4 strikeouts
LP - Aaron Harang (0-3): 5 2/3 IP, 10 hits, 7 runs (6 earned), 2 walks, 2 strikeouts